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from the handouts-instead-of-gov't-jobs-or-worker-owned-cooperatives dept.
Common Dreams reports
As a way to improve living standards and boosts its economy, the nation of Finland is moving closer towards offering[1] all of its adult citizens a basic permanent income of approximately 800 euros per month.
[...] The monthly allotment would replace other existing social benefits, but is an idea long advocated for by progressive-minded social scientists and economists as a solution--counter-intuitive as it may first appear at first--that actually decreases government expenditures while boosting both productivity, quality of life, and unemployment.
[...] The basic income proposal, put forth by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, known as KELA, would see every adult citizen "receive 800 euros ($876) a month, tax free, that would replace existing benefits. Full implementation would be preceded by a pilot stage, during which the basic income payout would be 550 euros and some benefits would remain."
[...] Under the current welfare system, a person gets less in benefits if they take up temporary, low-paying or part-time work--which can result in an overall loss of income.
[...] As Quartz reports, previous experiments with a basic income have shown promising results:
Everyone in the Canadian town of Dauphin was given a stipend from 1974 to 1979, and though there was a drop in working hours,[PDF] this was mainly because men spent more time in school and women took longer maternity leaves. Meanwhile, when thousands of unemployed people in Uganda were given unsupervised grants of twice their monthly income, working hours increased by 17% and earnings increased by 38%.
[1] Link to The Independent in TFA was redundant IMO.
...and, before anyone shouts SOCIALISM!, this is actually Liberal Democracy (of the Bernie Sanders type).
An actual move toward Socialism would subsidize the formation of worker-owned cooperatives. An initiative to do that was floated in 1980. 5 percent of taxes would have gone into a pool (kinda like USA's Social Security fund). The Finns rejected it. Source: Prof. Richard Wolff
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @07:15PM
Just with a couple of stipulations.
First, ditch other social spending. Social security? Gone. Medicare/Medicaid? Gone. Obamacare subsidies? Gone. Food stamps? Gone. Minimum wages? Gone. The federal savings in reduced bureaucracy alone should be amazing, and people should be delighted not to have that FICA nonsense in their paystubs.
Next, to up the savings on bureaucracy, you can massively downsize the IRS by removing personal income taxes, and replacing them with a payroll tax on corporations. You hire people? The feds get a cut. Period. No more tax dodging, probably need 10% of the people, the federal savings will be phenomenal.
In the mean time this will also help solve the immigration situation. All these goodies go to citizens only. OK, OK, green card holders too if you insist, but really you want this for citizens. Some brown dudes come north of the border to pick strawberries? They don't get the money, and they get to compete with americans who are getting that basic income, so need less cash on top to make a good wage. Bye-bye, Miguel!
Let's see what else we fix this way. Dependents get half their money in a trust fund that pays out when they reach some age (18, 21, whatever) and the rest goes to their head of household. That money shall be deemed sufficient for all tertiary tuition and other fees, so there we have an instant education benefit - no more bitching about university fees because there's an instant cap on the whole sum. Of course, people not legally in the country get to figure it out for themselves, but hey, that folds into the immigration solution! Efficiency!
.... or you could put this on top of all your other social payouts, and just ratchet up the budget to the next level. Go go, Leviathan!